4thGenCal;842552933 said:
Unlike most of the posts - I can be objective about Tosh, I knew him and the HC. Tosh did a lot of positive things while at Cal, he gave his heart and competed admirably for the team, he worked tirelessly up thru the ranks of grad assistant, then position coach etc and recruited amazingly well and legally, i emphasize while at Cal. To be able to bring in the quality of players with the facility/tradition/academic obstacles was simply incredible. He continually turned away overtures of far greater salary offers. Tosh was at $90k/year until he was finally bumped up to $135k/yr - yet comparable assistants within the league were at $200k+ and with a lower standard of living expenses. His loyalty was unquestioned. Regarding the 22 recruits that went on "academic probation" the staff used a team approach recruiting unless there was a clear cut relationship in place. Many of Tosh's primary recruits were satisfactory students as I did inquire as to his specific recruiting "wins' during his tenure of recruiting.
People forget that he was wrongly sacrificed for "injury gate" since the orders came directly from the DC not Tosh. Yet Tosh was forced to take the fall and suspension - watching the game from Tightwad Hill. I would say, if one walked in one's shoes, then its fair game to crudely rip on that person. Sark came after Tosh extremely hard and eventually with the help of his key staff in a face to face meeting, offered him in excess of $300k plus perks for his then girl friend school admittance,and Dad regarding a job opportunity. Tedford and Tosh were both very proud men and both made horrible mistakes leading up to the decision by Tosh to leave. Tosh wanted to stay and be promoted and paid fairly for his performance, but after being ignored on fair pay raises, being made the sacrificial lamb on injury gate - pride got the best of him. and yes he broke his verbal word that the latest offer of $225k from Cal was acceptable. Regarding how he handled the situation with Shaq, also completely wrong - however Shaq trusted him and made up his own mind to follow him to Washington - why? because a very close bond had been developed for the past 3 years. It was the downfall of Tedford as seven key 4 and 5 star verbal commitments reneged when Tosh left. Tosh has said repeatedly that he was wrong in how he pursued Shaq and wished in retrospect, he had not contacted Shaq while technically still under contract to Cal. He also felt that he owed it to the family and Shaq to meet them in person and be straight on his decision to leave Cal.
I am leaving out other pertinent information and while I generally am a supporter of Tosh, I am in no way giving him a pass on the manner in which he left. However for people to make in some cases uniformed opinions without ever talking directly to both him and Coach Tedford, is not allowing themselves to make objective assessments.
While everyone has rightly moved on - it was a direct blow to the program that we have not yet fully recovered from - though we all hope that this season proves that wrong.
Totally understand I am continuing a subject most want buried and will be "gutted" as well, for my positive comments about Tosh. Regardless I am an extremely loyal backer of the Cal program and want just the best in performance on the field and basketball courts ,along with acceptable academic performance as well. But I would fall in the court of results candidly, over superior academic performance.
I don't want to get into a detailed argument about Tosh +/- but with his Cal education he did not use it very well to make some decisions early on in his career. He was unable to see the big picture how it works in an organization, and how what he was doing effected more than just Tosh. Yes, you are humanizing Tosh, but for the most part making excuses for why he did what he did. We know most of that and most still feel as we do about Tosh.
UDub was in trouble. Cal was inching in on its ability to be a factor down the road. Sark had to destroy Cal's ability to grow while enhancing UDub's. Tosh was the pawn. He was not intelligent enough to see that and combined the "poor me" with the "big money offered" to come to a decision. In doing so he forever put himself in a bad position ethically. His choice, his bed. For those activities his water will be poisoned at Cal. There was a big picture that he entirely missed. If he had taken the "blow" for the DC and accepted the raise to $225, he would certainly be in a better position with Cal fans; albeit maybe not economically. That we will never know. But what we do know is that he acted like a traitor to us, whatever the excuses.